Assessing Savings from Group Measures Proposed by Houston Ammendments for the 2009 IECC (Residential Provisions)

Abstract

This report assesses several group measures that have been proposed by the City of Houston officials as part of the amendments to the 2009 IECC code - the Houston Amendments. The proposed group measures are for both single-family and multi-family units. There are eleven group measures for single-family units with electric cooling and natural gas heating (Electric/Natural Gas), seven group measures for multi-family units with electric cooling and natural gas heating (Electric/Natural Gas) and five group measures for multi-family units with electric cooling and heating (All-Electric). As prescribed in the Houston Amendments, the adoption of any one group should achieve a minimum of five percent improvement above the minimum requirements of the 2009 IECC code when complying with the prescriptive path outlined in the code. The assessment was performed using 2009 IECC compliant base-case simulation models for the single-family and multi-family units. Group measures to be assessed consisted of measures for the envelope, lighting, mechanical systems and domestic hot water heating systems as well as options for on-site renewable energy generation. Site energy consumption was considered for the assessment. For the single-family unit (Electric/Natural Gas) - site energy savings were in the range of 5% to 32%. For the multi-family unit (Electric/Natural Gas) - site energy savings were in the range of 3% to 22%. For the multi-family unit (All Electric) - site energy savings were in the range of 7% to 26%. The results are provided in Table ES-1, Table ES-2 and Table ES-3.